1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to internally lighted decorative displays, and in particular, in the use of a light conducting medium to replace a plurality of light bulbs in decorative displays, such as Christmas trees, wreaths, or outdoor series lights.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Through the course of the investigation, it has become apparent that in the past 20 years, several inventors have tried to develop alternate means of replacing light bulbs by the use of a light conductive medium material, such as fiber optics and/or hollow reflective transmission devices. The intent of utilizing the above was to innovate the principles of lighting effects, save on energy consumption by simulating the use of multiple light bulbs, reduce maintenance and risk of fire hazards. Furthermore, the use of optical fiber or light conducting medium would represent a complete innovation in the areas of ornamental or lighting displays, lamps and other areas of application. This concept has been applied to some decorative displays, such as Christmas trees and wreaths, as documented in U.S. Pat. No. 3,766,376 by Sadocca, U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,118 by Carrington, U.S. Pat. No. 3,465,139 by Mard Continental, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,102 by Huppert et al, etc.
Although the approaches taken in the above patents serve as good substitutes for the multiple use of light bulbs, they all do not take full advantage of optical fiber, light conducting medium and hollow transmission devices. This leads to a large waste and misuse of materials, volume, weight and cost. To be more specific, all the devices mentioned in the above patents, except for U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,102 to Huppert et al, are inefficient because they utilize a certain length of a light conducting medium to achieve a single pin-point of light for every strand of the light conducting medium used, thereby restricting the illumination to the extreme end of a Christmas tree branch. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,102 by Huppert et al, a different approach is taken, that is, of using hollow transmission with a reflective chamber. In this case, a constant light intensity cannot practically be kept constant since, based on the geometry and size of the branch, the light intensity decreases as the square of the distance from the source.
Therefore, these systems do not take full advantage of the illuminating effects provided by optical fiber or light conducting medium and hollow transmission, inasmuch as they do not provide neither a spray of optical fiber nor a multiplicity of simple pin-point like lights. Attempts have been made to provide such an effect on a Christmas tree, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,624,385, but the process and materials used are too cumbersome, costly and still do not exploit the complete significance of fiber optics and/or light conducting materials.